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EFFORTS to improve the lives of 'troubled families’ on the Island were heard this week at the Conservative conference.

Isle of Wight Council leader Cllr David Pugh spoke about the 315 families receiving help from the authority, as part of a national drive to tackle long-term unemployment, truancy and anti-social behaviour.

He told the conference: "Our particular focus is on getting the Island moving — creating job and training opportunities for local young people and tackling the culture of worklessness that sadly exists among a small minority of our population.

"The vast majority of our households are strivers — our challenge now is to instil the same mindset among the hard-to-reach groups, and the identified 'troubled families’ are certainly in that category.

"Despite the Island having a proud history of innovation and industry, too many of our young people and families are demotivated and lacking the skills and ambition to succeed.

"We have some great businesses and some highly talented people, but this currently doesn’t stretch widely enough."

The scheme, called 'strengthening families’ on the Island, includes providing families with a key worker to help them address their problems.